Space Engineering Failure Essay

1137 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Shuttle disasters challenge and columbia

The purpose of this report is to better understand one of the most catastrophic events in the history of space aviation, which occurred on February 1, 2003. A structural failure resulted in the space shuttle Columbia breaking apart upon re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere [1]. This report will try to explain the engineering failures that led to this tragic accident, and examine the resulting improvements in the field of space travel in order to prevent an accident of such magnitude in the future. The fuel tanks of a shuttle contain liquid oxygen and a hydrogen propellant that is stored at an extremely cold temperature. The design engineers of the shuttle knew that the tank was not insulated properly. The contact of nitrogen and water in the atmosphere with the tank would result in a dense layer of ice building up on the surface of the tank. During takeoff this ice can dislodge and puncture the shuttle. In order to prevent this from occurring the engineers in Lockheed Martin were given the task to spray the tank with foam to insulate it …show more content…

In addition, DAT has the option of obtaining “focus inspections” images. DAT reports are now clearly and directly given to the Orbiteer Project Offices. The engineers in NASA are now encouraged to speak up about any concerns they have, either anonymously to Mission Management Teams, or to their managers, without fear of getting reprimanded. Repair kits now exist for the tiles and the wing carbon panels for each mission, and the software to analyze the seriousness of damage has been also been improved. Additionally, any future shuttle will be able to board the International Space Station for safe haven if the shuttle is deemed irreparable, which the Columbia was unable to do. Furthermore, a second shuttle can be sent to for a rescue attempt if it is deemed

Show More
Related

  • Analysis of the Smoking Gun Memos

    1223 Words  | 3 Pages

    R. M. Boisjoly had over a quarter-century’s experience in the aerospace industry in 1985 when he became involved in an improvement effort on the O-ring which connect segments of Morton Thiokol’s Solid Rocket Booster. This was used to bring the Space Shuttle into orbit (OEC, 2006). Morton Thiokol is an aerospace company that manufactures the solid propellant rocket motors used to launch the Challenger (Skubik). Boisjoly authored a memo to R.L. Lund, Vice President of Engineering and four others, in regards to his concerns about the flawed O-ring erosion problem. His warnings were ignored leading to the deaths of six astronauts and one social studies teacher.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis of President Reagan's Challenger Address

    991 Words  | 2 Pages

    On a cold winter’s morning on the 28th day of January in the year 1986, America was profoundly shaken and sent to its knees as the space shuttle Challenger gruesomely exploded just seconds after launching. The seven members of its crew, including one civilian teacher, were all lost. This was a game changer, we had never lost a single astronaut in flight. The United States by this time had unfortunately grown accustomed to successful space missions, and this reality check was all too sudden, too brutal for a complacent and oblivious nation (“Space”). The outbreak of sympathy that poured from its citizens had not been seen since President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. The disturbing scenes were shown repeatedly on news networks which undeniably made it troublesome to keep it from haunting the nation’s cognizance (“Space”). The current president had more than situation to address, he had the problematic undertaking of gracefully picking America back up by its boot straps.

    Read More

  • Apollo 1 Ethical Violations Essay

    1461 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Space Race began when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik into space in 1957. The United States’ answer to this was the Apollo program. While the Apollo program did have successful launches, such as the Apollo 11 launch that landed Americans on the moon, not every launch went as smoothly. Fifty years ago, a disaster occurred that shook the Apollo program to its core. On January 27, 1967, the Apollo 1 command module was consumed by a fire during one of its launch rehearsal tests. This led to the death of three astronauts, Virgil Ivan “Gus” Grissom, Edward Higgins White, and Roger Bruce Chaffee. The fire was caused by a number of factors, most of which were technical. These causes range from the abundance of oxygen in the atmosphere of the

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Failure Not An Option By Allison Carr

    1142 Words  | 3 Pages

    Failure is not an option, this phrase rushes through everyone’s head while trying to complete a task or goal successfully. Failure is thought of a parasitic word that only successful people have not heard of. With the article “Failure is not an Option” I feel it’s very well written and I agree with much of the article when Allison Carr, the author, explains how failure can be used as a learning tool. While she also states how failure is a bad thing, or parasitic as I stated before. I really appreciated how she covered both sides of the debate. However, I think Carr should touch about grit and open mindedness. Which are the two most vital traits to have while trying to learn from your mistakes, in my opinion.

    Read More

  • Challenger Disaster

    1061 Words  | 3 Pages

    Engineers and scientists began trying to find what went wrong almost right away. They studied the film of the take-off. When they studied the film, they noticed a small jet of flame coming from inside the casing for one of the rocket boosters. The flame got bigger and bigger. It started to touch a strut that connected the booster to the big fuel tank attached to the space shuttle. About two or three seconds later, hydrogen began leaking from the gigantic fuel tank. About seventy-two seconds after take-off, the hydrogen caught on fire and the booster swung around. That punctured the fuel tank, which caused a big explosion.

    Read More

  • Space Exploration in the 1980s

    1369 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Orbiter Vehicle (OV) is "the brains and heart of the Space Transportation System" ("The Orbiter," par. 1). Also called the fuselage, it has a cabin for the crew, a large cargo bay and three Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSMEs). The forward part of the orbiter is the crew cabin; it is where the cockpit and living quarters can be found and where mission experiments are performed. The middle part of the orbiter is large open bay and it i...

    Read More

  • The Challenger Disaster Explained

    1083 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Challenger disaster of 1986 was a shock felt around the country. During liftoff, the shuttle exploded, creating a fireball in the sky. The seven astronauts on board were killed and the shuttle was obliterated. Immediately after the catastrophe, blame was spread to various people who were in charge of creating the shuttle and the parts of the shuttle itself. The Presidential Commission was decisive in blaming the disaster on a faulty O-ring, used to connect the pieces of the craft. On the other hand, Harry Collins and Trevor Pinch, in The Golem at Large, believe that blame cannot be isolated to any person or reason of failure. The authors prove that there are too many factors to decide concretely as to why the Challenger exploded. Collins and Pinch do believe that it was the organizational culture of NASA and Morton Thiokol that allowed the disaster. While NASA and Thiokol were deciding whether to launch, there was not a concrete reason to postpone the mission.

    Read More

  • De Havilland Comet Airplane Failure

    1220 Words  | 3 Pages

    Following World War II and the jet engine technology that emerged largely toward its end, aerospace engineers knew well that the technology had great potential for use in the commercial aviation industry. The Comet was the first aircraft to utilize jet propulsion; however, its designers failed to consider the metallurgy of the aircraft’s materials under flight conditions or the consequences of their atypical window design. The aircraft was designed by Britain’s De Havilland Aircraft Company and entered service in May 1952. After a year of service, however, the design issues mentioned above resulted in the failure of several Comet aircraft. Extensive evaluations revealed that repeated pressurization stress on the aircraft’s main cabin had caused its structure to fail.

    Read More

  • Engineering disasters

    694 Words  | 2 Pages

    On February 1, 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia was lost due to structural failure in the left wing. On take-off, it was reported that a piece of foam insulation surrounding the shuttle fleet's 15-story external fuel tanks fell off of Columbia's tank and struck the shuttle's left wing. Extremely hot gas entered the front of Columbia's left wing just 16 seconds after the orbiter penetrated the hottest part of Earth's atmosphere on re-entry. The shuttle was equipped with hundreds of temperature sensors positioned at strategic locations. The salvaged flight recorded revealed that temperatures started to rise in the left wing leading edge a full minute before any trouble on the shuttle was noted. With a damaged left wing, Columbia started to drag left. The ships' flight control computers fought a losing battle trying to keep Columbia's nose pointed forward.

    Read More

  • Human Factors On Aloha 243

    2368 Words  | 5 Pages

    Inspection between each flight besides avoiding accidents, it also helps engineers to understand what problems that would be aroused by operation environment. Pre-flight inspection of Aloha 243 was only carried out before the first flight each day which is inadequate. Besides, all inspection records at each inspection should be kept; it records all the status of the parts and help engineers to understand how the aircraft structures would be affected after each operation.

    Read More

  • The Army Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear Survey

    928 Words  | 2 Pages

    There are five different mission sets that the teams work in. They are Emergency Response, Remediation and Restoration, Technical Escort of materials, Technical Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear support to COCOMs and Homeland Security. Emergency Response is one of the primary m...

    Read More

  • An Analysis of the Crash of Air France Flight 4590

    1462 Words  | 3 Pages

    Travelling at a speed twice that of sound might seem to be something futuristic; however, this feat has already been achieved almost 40 years ago by the world’s only supersonic passenger aircraft-The Concorde. Concorde brought a revolution in the aviation industry by operating transatlantic flights in less than four hours. The slick and elegant aircraft with one of the most sophisticated engineering was one of the most coveted aircrafts of its time. However, this was all destined to end when Air France Flight 4590 was involved in a tragic disaster just outside the city of Paris on July 25, 2000. The crash killed 113 people, but more disastrous was its impact. The belief and confidence people had with Concorde gradually started to fade, and finally Concorde was grounded after two and a half years of the crash. Official reports state that the main cause of the crash was a piece of metal dropped by a Continental aircraft that flew moments before Concorde, but, over the last decade, the report has met a lot of criticism, and many alternative hypotheses have thus been proposed.

    Read More

  • The Coming Schism By James E. And Alcestis R. Oberg

    1332 Words  | 3 Pages

    Humans have dreamed of leaving the earth and traveling space for many years, and up to this day they have taken many steps in the right direction. Yet, with every new frontier they approach, new problems loom over the horizon. All problems involved with space exploration may not directly involve space itself. Many of those problems surface right here on Earth. Some of the easier issues have been resolved, such as escaping the forces of gravity to reach outer space. More of these problems are far more arduous and the solutions need more time to be worked out properly. In “The Coming Schism” by James E. and Alcestis R. Oberg, humans have already begun colonizing space, yet there are still new problems arising. Major problems such as financing, communication and culture conflicts are important in the journey to space, because they all have the potential to disrupt progress.

    Read More

  • aircraft icing

    1246 Words  | 3 Pages

    middle of paper ... ... dated (2002, November 11). Aircraft Icing. Retrieved February 19, 2005 from http://www.aopa.org/asf/publications/sa11.pdf Kilroy, C. (n.d.). Special Report: Air Florida Flight 90.

    Read More

  • Aerospace Engineer Essay

    547 Words  | 2 Pages

    Aerospace engineers examine, analyze, design, produce, and occasionally install components that make up aircraft, spacecraft, high-altitude vehicles, and high-altitude delivery systems (missiles). Satisfaction with the romantic image of rocket building can buoy many engineers through the highly anonymous work environments that many of them face. Individuals don't assemble rockets; teams do, dozens of teams working in highly supervised coordination. An aerospace engineer plays some part on one of the teams, spending more of her time (roughly 70 percent) in a lab, at a computer, and assembling reports than doing anything else. Not being able to see the "big picture" frustrates some professionals. The path to becoming an aerospace engineer is a rigorous one, but those who manage to survive the difficult lift-off emerge with an above-average degree of career satisfaction.

    Read More

More about Space Engineering Failure Essay

Open Document